Alan Caruba's blog is a daily look at events, personalities, and issues from an independent point of view. Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2015. With attribution, posts may be shared. A permission request is welcome. Email acaruba@aol.com.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

First Brat: It's ALL about Him

By Alan Caruba

Ten minutes into the answer to the first question asked at President Obama’s latest press conference, I had a kind of epiphany. This guy should be called the First Brat.

He has all the attributes of a brat. He wants all the attention he can get. He doesn’t take criticism well. He is full of bravado and false promises.

He keeps reminding everyone that he is the President as if the idea surprises even himself. Or as a reminder that he does, indeed, hold a great deal of power, ceded to him by the American people.

There’s no real sense of humility about him. Nothing has been more astonishing or annoying than his World Apology Tour. America may not be perfect, but we are better, more just, more generous than most other nations.

Whatever humility Obama expresses is feigned to further endear him. His wife and children are stage props. Anyone seen or heard of them lately? I love the way he says, “This isn’t about me” when it is ALL about him.

He’s a brat. It’s all Obama all the time.

In a lot of ways, Bill Clinton was too. Clinton, however, was no fool. He understood reality as opposed to wild-eyed dreams of a Democrat-induced utopia where everyone is treated “fairly” and there is no “intolerance”, blah, blah, blah. Even someone like myself who loathed him while he was in office has to admit I secretly felt sorry for him because of his choice in wives.

I cannot work up any sympathy for Obama and cannot even take any pleasure in being found right in my judgment of him as I wrote my impressions during the campaign and the first six months of his term. I said he was a moron and I am sticking with it.

Even the public picked up on it as it became evident he couldn’t go to the bathroom without a set of TelePrompters and instructions.

The nation has had young presidents in the past. Kennedy comes to mind. He was charismatic, an emblem of, as he himself expressed it, a new generation, formed in the crucible of World War II and ready to take on the enemies of America and of freedom.Kennedy had been tested in many ways.

Barack Obama has not been tested. He has been privileged at almost every stage of his road to power. It shows in the way he smarts over every perceived grievance and it showed in that amateurish, off the cuff remark about the “stupidity” of the Cambridge police who arrested his friend.

Obama is acutely conscious of race, ignoring the obvious fact that a majority of white people voted for him. In this regard, he will be the eternal victim, another aspect of being a brat. Worse yet, he speaks disdainfully of the “rich” and of “profit”, the keystone of a free marketplace.

The need for immediate satisfaction of every whim and, in his case, every policy, is another reason he’s a brat. As one political sage put it, “It took Obama six months to pick a dog, but he wants a Healthcare Bill by next week?”

I am not one for making predictions because they tend to come back to bite you, but I will predict that Obama’s is already a failed presidency. He’s already a lame duck. As one of the Blue Dog Democrats in Congress put it, “We’re trying to save the party.”

The Republicans have played their slim hand of cards quite well. They can smell the blood in the water and all they need now are some appealing candidates; some older guys with good resumes. Youth, it turns out, is over-rated.

As much as I disliked Clinton, there was one thing about him I can find to praise. When Arafat said the Temple Mount in Jerusalem wasn't ever the site of said Temple, Clinton was non-plused. Throughout all recorded history, everyone has known that, and even an inveterate, uh, stretcher of the truth like Clinton found that a lie far too big to swallow. Not so Obama, about whom I have absolutely nothing positive to say. And the more I learn about him, the worse it gets.

Yes, I removed it because I felt I had let my enthusiams for Rich Cohen's book overcome my normal caution when it comes to writing about "religious" topics. For a commentator, it is always a no-win situation.

Two things. First off, I think that your analyses of him has been right on from the beginning on all points. Secondly, I never saw you get so worked up over a book before, but I like the article and would have left it.

Rich, when you've been a book reviewer for some fifty years, a really well written one does get your attention, but I personally wandered outside my zone of comfort when writing about Israel. It is too complex a topic to try to capture in 1,000 words or so.

I just heard today that the company I used to work for, which makes a product used almost exclusively by the petrochemical and power plant industries, has asked their employees to take unpaid leave. When I worked there, most of the people I worked with were quite liberal, and never really seemed to understand the connection between energy policy and their jobs. I wonder if they're getting the point now? I know this is a little off-subject, but I had to share it....

About Me

I am and have been for a long time a writer by profession. I have several books to my credit and my daily column, "Warning Signs", is disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites, as well as blogs. In addition, I am a longtime book reviewer and have a blog offering a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction.